Showing results for May 2008 - Page 3 of 4 - The Old New Thing

When last we left my dead desktop computer, it had returned to the world of the living with the assistance of the onboard video adapter. The screen was fuzzy because I was running my LCD monitor through the analog VGA cable. Performing an auto-adjust helped a little but it was still blurry. Still, it was within the realm of acceptability for casu...

When the Internet Explorer folks announced that they were going to call their next version of Internet Explorer Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP and Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista, many people responded to the awkward name by suggesting that it be shortened to Internet Explorer 7 XP and Internet Explorer 7 Vis...

In this article on compatibility between the .NET Framework versions 1.1 and 2.0, there is a passing mention of a setting nicknamed the "Big Red Switch". The power switch on the original IBM PC really was big and red. Well, orange-red. Here's a picture of the power switch on an IBM PC-AT. Decide for yourself what color it is. In college, t...

In Lisbon, walk/don't walk signs are mostly decorative. The real rule for crossing the street is look both ways and cross when safe. There's no requirement that you use a designated crosswalk. As long as the coast is clear, you can cross the street anywhere. When my host for the conference accompanied me to the conference center, we crossed the st...

Commenter Jonathan Scheepers wonders about those programs that flash their taskbar button indefinitely, overriding the default flash count set by . The function and its simpler precursor let a program flash its window caption and taskbar button manually. The window manager flashes the caption automatically (and Explorer follows the caption by...

This upcoming Sunday is Mother's Day in the United States, and I'm reminded of a little story from several years ago. One day, we asked a colleague how he and his new child were planning to celebrate Mother's Day. "Yup, I'm all over that. I mailed a gift to my mother earlier this week, and I'll call her on Sunday." — Um, aren't you forgett...

Data can change without the breakpoint firing.

I'm fascinated by economics, specifically the application of economic theories to things you wouldn't normally consider as economics. Back during the World Cup, Slate's undercover economist column took a look at the economics of penalty kicks. Steven D. Levitt, co-author of another paper on the subject, writes in more detail on the unusuall...

I know most of you know this, but I'm going to say it for the record. When you have a dialog box with an OK and/or Cancel button, do not give the keys accelerators. In other words, simply write The dialog manager already has those buttons covered. The hotkey for the OK button is Enter (since it is the default pushbutton), and the hotkey for the...

Non appetit, the modern quandary of preparing a dinner for people who all have different types of dietary restrictions. Depending on whom I invite to dinner, I may have to put together a meal that conforms to one or more of the following restrictions: low-fat, pescetarian, vegetarian, nondairy, non-pork, non-beef. (Yes, many of these categories o...